Printing machine ink rail



July 31, 1962 F. NEAL 3,046,885

PRINHNG MACHINE INK RAIL Filed May 12, 1960 FIG.

INVENTOR fm M ATORNEYS ilnited gratas @arent @if 3,946,885 PRINTNG MACWEEJK RAE..

Frank Neal, New City, N317., assigner to R. Hoe & Co., inc., New York,NX., a corporation of New York Filed May 12, 19611, Ser. No. 28,572 13Claims. (Ci. 101-350) This invention relates to the inking mechanisms ofprinting machines and more particularly to the ink rails thereof.

In known inking mechanisms, ink is pumped through an ink rail to theinitial drum of a series of such drums, some of which may have anaxially reciprocating movement and which cooperate to Work the ink intoa suitably uniform film and then transfer it by means of form rollers tothe printing or plate cylinder. In these devices, the ink rails areconventionally arranged with respect to the distributing drums withwhich they cooperate so that ori fices or slots in the face of the railthrough which the printing ink is forced onto the drum are centrallylocated and the face of the rail extends a considerable distancefollowmg the curve of the distributing drum on each side of theorifices.

An advantage of such an arrangement is that the distributing drum mayrotate in either direction, but ink spraying. or misting is diiiicult toavoid because it is practically impossible to locate the iirst inkroller, which spreads the freshly applied ink over the surface of thefirst distributing drum, close enough to the rail. Also, such an inkrail cannot be vset correctly for both directions of rotation where theprinting couple is reversible.

It is the general object of the present invention to provide an improvedink rail by means of which the printing ink is supplied to the surfaceof the first distributing drum immediately before the contact linebetween this drum and a rubber roller cooperating therewith.

Another object of the invention is to provide an ink rail arrangementhaving substantially the same `distribution in both directions ofrotation of the mechanism.

A further object is to provide an ink rail of the type indicated havingconveniently operable means for shifting over of ink from one side ofthe rail to the other, when the printing couple is reversed.

An inking mechanism embodying the invention in a preferred form will nowrst be described with reference to the accompanying drawing, and thefeatures forming the invention will then be poined out in the appendedclaims.

In the drawing:

FIG. 1 is a section taken on the line 1-1 of FIG. 2 through the ink railand showing schematically adjacent drums and rollers cooperatingtherewith;

FIG. 2 is a plan View of the ink rail;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged plan View of a piston valve forming part of themechanism; and

FIG. 4 is a side view of the piston valve shown in FIG. 3

As shown in FIG. 1, the mechanism of the invention comprises inkdistributing drums 11 and 12, which are typically steel or other hardsurfaced drums, a plurality of ink transfer rollers 13, 14, 15 which aretypically rubber covered or other soft surfaced rollers, together withan ink rail 16 from which the ink is supplied. As will be understood,further drums and rollers taking ink from the drum 12 may and ordinarilywill be provided, as for eX- ample, in the ink motions shown in priorpatents to Ginsberg, 1,962,011 and to Harless 2,699,116. The ink railPatented .italy 31, 1952 fre 16 is designed to furnish ink in onedirection of rotation (corersponding to the solid arrows applied todrums 11 and 13) and also in the opposite direction of rotation(corresponding to the broken arrows applied to drums 111 and 14) `itwill be understood that when the direction of rotation is changed,allthe drums shown reverse their rotation. supply ink closely adjacent aline of engagement between elements 11 and 13 in the one direction ofrotation and also to supply ink closely adjacent the line of engagementbetween elements 11 and 14 when the drums are rotated in the oppositedirection.

The inl: rail structure providing for this operation lis shown in FlGS.l and 2. As lthere shown, the ink rail body 16 has spaced faces 17 and1S curved so as -to conform generally to the drum 11 and rearwardly ofthese faces has ink ducts 19 and 211, terminating respectively in theink supplying orifices 21 and 21. These orifices are conveniently formedby milling shallow pockets 22 and 22' in the body of the ink rail andcovering them by inserts 23 and 23' suitably shaped to conform to thecurvature of the adjacent drum and rollers as shown. The `ink issupplied through conduits 24 from the usual ink pump such as shown, forexample, in prior patent to Schmidt 1,348,900 or White 1,311,198 andthrough piston valves 25 which are reciprocable in bores 26 forconnecting the conduits 241 selectively to either the bores 19 or thebores 211 as desired. The piston valves are operable by means of forks27 engaging in recesses 28 in the piston bodies, these forks beingmounted on a common shaft 29 which may be rocked by means of a handlever 30-and which is rotatably mounted in bearing blocks 37 secured. tothe ink rail body. As will be apparent, turning the handle 3G from oneposition connects the conduits 24 to the bores 19 while turning it toanother connects them to the bores 24). The ink rail is supported bysecuring body 16 to members 3S, 39, holding it in the desired positionwith reference to the drum and rollers.

The piston valve itself is of simple construction, havingcircumferential grooves 3.1 carrying sealing rings 32 which seal to thewall of the bore 26, and each piston has a center bore 33 and cross bore34 for establishing connection either to the ports 35 leading to thebores 19 or to the ports 36 leading to the bores Ztl. Conduits 24 may bemade of plastic or .even metallic material and will possess suiiicientiexibility to permit the required piston valve movement.

With the piston valves set in their outer position as shown in FG. l,the ink is supplied through bores `19 and orifices 21 closely adjacenttheV nip or line of engagement of drum 11 and roller 13 so thatimmediately after its being placed upon the drum 11, it is workedbetween this drum and soft surfaced roller 13 and is partly transferredyby the latter to the second distributing drum 12.

Further working and transfer of ink occurs at the nip of roller 15 anddrum 11 and some further Working is given the remaining ink by roller14.

In the reverse direction of operation, the ink is applied by theorifices 21v to the drum 11 immediately adjacent the nip of this drumand roller 14 and is smoothed out and worked by this 'roller and furtherworked and transferred by rollers 1S and 13.

The faces 17 and 1S are preferably spaced close to the Vdrum 11 (aspacing of the order of .00A-.006 inch being appropriate) and the upperand lower faces of the rail adjacent the rollers 13 and 141 are spacedclose to these elements and conform to the curvature thereof, althoughThe ink drum structure is arranged so as to the nips of the drum androllers, the said rail having a the two said drums for transferring inkfrom the rst menline of orifices in its face adjacent the drumpositioned toned drum to the said second drum. close to the nip of oneof said rollers and the drum and a second line of orifices in itsV faceadjacent the drum and n positioned close to the nip of the other saidroller and 5 References Cmd m the me of thls patent the said drum, theink rail surfaces being in wiping re- UNITED STATES PATENTS lation tothe drum and both said rollers for smoothing 1,901,076 Behman Man14,1933 out any globules thereon, a second hard surfaced drum 1,962,011Ginsberg June 5, 1934 cooperating With one of said rollers for takingink there- 2,762,301 Col-neu Sept 11, 1956 from and a third softsurfaced roller cooperating with 10

